Dave Jones
knew he was in good company in the early 1990s. He and three fellow
engineers were shaping their young careers under the tutelage of District
6 Engineer Jim Ross.

Although miles
separated them in the years that followed, three of the engineers went
on to share common professional titles – Tom Cole became district
engineer in District 6, Ed Bala achieved the same status in District
5 and Devin Rigby was chosen District 4 engineer.

Jones
is back in that good company.

This week he
learned that he will rejoin his esteemed colleagues as a fellow district
engineer – assuming responsibilities for the state’s most
populous area, District 3. Chief Engineer Steve Hutchinson announced
Jones’s selection Thursday.

“I’ve
always had two professional steps that I wanted to take – to become
a resident engineer where I could build projects and to become a district
engineer,” Jones explained.

In
more than two decades since graduating from the University of Idaho
with a civil engineering degree, Jones has experienced periods of intense
construction activity and an era of relative calm when District 6 focused
on processes under Ross.

After he graduated
from the UI in 1985, Jones accepted an engineering position with the
Washington Department of Transportation in Vancouver and Bellevue. While
with WSDOT, Jones worked on a major seven-mile expansion of Interstate
90 from downtown Seattle to the 405 interchange near Bellevue.

He
returned to Idaho after four years in Washington and entered the Engineer
in Training program at ITD. He finished the professional EIT program
in an accelerated seven months, with credit awarded for his tenure in
Washington. Jones worked in District 3 as a resident engineer for 18
months before transferring to District 6 as a resident engineer and
later advanced to project development engineer.

That
period was marked more by process and innovation than construction.
Cole initiated the concept of QA/QC, where the district assumed responsibility
for quality assurance on projects and contractors were responsible for
quality control. ITD also introduced a new concept of recycling highway
surfaces by reapplying the material as a base for new highways. It became
known as Cement Recycled Asphalt Base Stabilization – CRABS.

The
District 6 interlude prepared Jones for the demands of assistant district
engineer in District 2 during an active bridge construction era. While
there, he worked on five major bridges – the Ahsahka, Kooskia,
Kamiah, Orofino and Goff (also known as Time Zone Bridge near Riggins).

“Those
were exciting times,” Jones recalls.

'The
needs and wants are competing with each other, and the needs are
limiting the wants. We don’t have the freedom to address
the wants because the needs are so great.'

He
returned to Boise in 1999 to serve as the state maintenance engineer
at Headquarters, a position he held for six years until transferring
to the GARVEE Program office.

He
was one of two internal finalists for the District 3 engineer position
vacated by Eric Shannon.

Jones accepts
his new position fully aware of the demands of the rapidly growing Treasure
Valley. “I know what I’m walking into – a district
that has a lot of challenges. Growth and access management are at the
top of the list. Human capital is also near the top – making sure
employees feel appreciated and challenged.

As
is common at all levels of government in Idaho, especially agencies
overseeing roads and highways, revenue is a pressing issue. “It’s
really limiting what we can do in terms of enhancements to the system,”
he said.

“There’s
a lot of need. The needs and wants are competing with each other, and
the needs are limiting the wants. We don’t have the freedom to
address the wants because the needs are so great.”

District 3
will receive a significant share of the GARVEE projects in the next
four or five years as ITD looks at expanding I-84 from Caldwell to Meridian
and plans enhancements to Idaho highways 44, 20 and 16.

It promises
to be the dawn of another era of active construction for the new district
engineer.